TRESPASSING TOPERS.

NZ Truth, Issue 240, 12 February 1910, Page 7

TRESPASSING TOPERS.

What's to be Done with Then ?

During the heating of the case against !Agnes Ingestre at Dunedia, on February 4, Magistrate Widdowson bad a few words to say on a legal point. Constable Havelock had told how he had taken accused off private property and then arrested her m the street, when the S.M. interjected that the constable bad arrested the woman m a wrong place.

' Sub-ln«j«ecior Phair said the constable was called upon to put her off private property. Wni?» h&4 been doae «a tkis occasion was dooe frequency by the police. The S.M. said he had always been against the procedure shown m this case. The owner of the property sbeoM nave put the woma«v off it. The Sab-inspector said Agnes was a trespasser, and surely the police were Justified m ejecting such a person. It was a very common practice witn the police.

Y> S.M. : I don't care if it has bees the practice since the be^ianieg of courts. The &üb'-lhsptctor replied that if his Worship's ruling were upheld it would reheve the police of much work, bat would inconvenience Private people greatly. Later m the proceedings, the S.M. said he wished to modify his previous remarks. Many cases had come before him where people had been arrested on private property. If a constable was called t'pon to eject a person from private propet) he could do so, and could arrest bin* thereafter for any subsequent offence. If a 1 person was only sligutly un-

der the influence of liquor great care should be exercised. The police should not use the trespass section of the Act indiscriminately, and so far as the trespass was concerned, should only act as the agent of the owner.

The Sub-Inspector " said that instructions., to that effect had been given to the police. In this connection it is interesting to recall the action of Mr Humming, the agent of the Patients' and Prisoners' Aid Society, 'm a certain case. A man with a family had a prohibition . order out against him, but managed to get very .drunk notwithstanding, and his wife and family suffered. They suffered even so. much that when groceries were sent m by order of the Benevolent Trustees, the husband would wake out of his drunken sleep and eat the. whole lot. This, fellow was very cunning, and could not be found m a drunken state on the public highway, so Mr Cumming took the law into his own hands for the time being for the good of the family, and turned the drunkard out on the street just when a constable was passing, which was the means of easing his wife and family of his presence for the space of a lunar' month.